Dive Brief:
- NBCUniversal is testing Seeso, an ad-free streaming comedy subscription service.
- Seeso is the result of a skunkworks-like effort at NBCU called NBCU Digital Enterprises designed to disrupt video consumption at the media giant.
- Seeso, which is slated for a December launch, will feature comedy and will be priced at $4 per month.
Dive Insight:
Cable TV veteran Evan Shapiro was hired as EVP of digital enterprises and became the leader of the “startup” within NBCU.
Shapiro told Digiday, “To be blunt: we have a great business in the linear world. We didn’t have any businesses that created content that was meant to go directly to the consumer, and, frankly, we didn’t have any services that catered specifically to the 18- to 34-year-old consumer whose primary resource [for watching content] is streaming.”
Seeso, the ad-free subscription service created by NBCU Digital Enterprises, launches in beta in December. Seeso will carry NBC’s late night shows, and a library of classic comedy TV and movies. It will also allow viewers to watch without paying, but only able to sample around 15% of the Seeso library.
Other recent entrants into the ad-free subscription model include YouTube Red, launching this week at $9.99 per month, and an ad-free version of Hulu that costs $11.99 per month.
